Why should you start drinking Bulletproof Coffee?

I like a cup of coffee – Cappuccino preferably.

Since watching “Cowspiracy” drinking regular milk from the carton to froth for my Cappuccino is not an option anymore.  Milk also has a negative effect on polyphenols, the good antioxidants in coffee. It makes them less likely to be absorbed.
Therefore I started making my own almond milk. It worked, it tastes good, but it’s pretty expensive (200g of almonds cost about USD 5.5 in Sri Lanka) and it takes planning – from start to finish you need two days of preparation before you can enjoy the milk. Apart from that it tends to separate when heated and can hardly be frothed – so, all in all not a great alternative!

Bulletproof Coffee in a handmade Tallentire House cup

Bulletproof Coffee in a handmade Tallentire House cup

I didn’t want to give up coffee entirely!
Caffeine actually has many health benefits:

  • regulates your insulin sensitivity
  • blocks inflammation to the brain

That’s when I remembered our favourite restaurant in Unawatuna, Bedspace, offered Bulletproof Coffee on their menu…

So how do you make Bulletproof Coffee?

  1. Brew  hot coffee.
  2. Using a blender, blend in
    – 2 tablespoons unsalted, grass-fed butter,
    – 2 tablespoons of C8 MCT oil or regular coconut oil,
    – a pinch of ground cinnamon,
    – a few drops of organic vanilla extract and
    – stevia or wild honey to enhance the taste.
  3. Blend for a few seconds.
  4. Enjoy.

That sounds like a fairly easy procedure. Not time consuming at all, even faster then my old habit of heating up regular milk, frothing etc.

To get grass-fed butter in Sri Lanka was a problem. I don’t know where you live, but you might be facing the same problem…
Then I found out that Anchor butter from New Zealand is pretty much only made from grass-fed cows. It’s not 100%, so they can’t advertise it on the label – still, good enough for me.

What are the benefits of Bulletproof coffee?

  • When you switch out your milk for butter in your coffee, you get 3.4 times more antioxidants
  • Butter contains butyric acid, which lowers inflamation and heals your gut.

Not convinced yet?

  • A study on rats found that coffee combined with a high fat diet, led to decreases in body weight, fat and liver triglycerides
  • Adding fat to your coffee helps you reach ketosis.

If you want to know more about how to bulletproof your life instead of just your coffee, read “Bulletproof Diet” by David Asprey on Blinkist in 15 minutes!

Blinkist is the greatest app I discovered recently on the App shop. Sign up for free and check it out!

Blinkist has over 2,000 books–in–blinks with 40 new titles added each month. Read or listen and get the key ideas from the best non-fiction books in 15 minutes. I love it!

Ketosis

Ketosis is a metabolic state where the body burns fat for energy instead of sugar.

Some people try to reach ketosis by avoiding carbohydrates in their diet, but another trick is, adding butter or MCT oil or even both to your coffee. It makes your coffee bulletproof and will help your body burn more fat as an energy source.

A ketone level of 0.6 mM* indicates ketosis. Typically, circulating levels of ketones are at ~0.1 mM in the average person after an overnight fast.
Dave Asprey who is the author of the book “Bulletproof Diet”, describes that after drinking a cup of bulletproof coffee, the blood ketone level can reach 0.7mM within 30 minutes.
People on low-carb diets have to restrict their intake of carbohydrates for three days before they can reach the same level.

*mM stands for millimolar. It’s the measuring unit of concentrations expressing the number of moles of the substance (here ketones) present in a defined volume of solution: A 1 millimolar (1 mM) solution contains 1 millimole per litre (1 mmol/l).

Optimum blood ketone levels for nutritional ketosis range from 0.5 to 3.0 mM,
according to Volek and Phinney in their best-selling book “The Art and Science of Low-Carbohydrate Living”.

C8 MCT Oil

It is made from coconut or palm oil and has 18 times more medium-chain triglycerides than regular coconut oil.

Mediumchain triglycerides are a form of saturated fatty acid that has numerous health benefits, ranging from improved cognitive function to better weight management.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants help neutralize harmful free radicals in your body by donating an electron to the free radical’s unpaired electron.

If there are no antioxidants present, free radicals take electrons from healthy cells in the body, causing oxidative stress.

The apples above demonstrate how oxidative stress breaks down your cells, causing premature aging and disease.

 

Best antioxidant rich foods
1) Goji berries 25000 ORAC* score
2) Dark chocolate 21000 ORAC score
3) Pecan nuts 17000 ORAC score
4) Wild blueberries 14000 ORAC score
5) Elderberries 14000 ORAC score
6) Artichokes 9400 ORAC score
7) Cranberries 9500 ORAC score
8) Kidney beans 8400 ORAC score
9) Blackberries 5300 ORAC score
10) Coriander 5100 ORAC score

*ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. It’s a lab test that attempts to quantify the “total antioxidant capacity” (TAC) of a food.